Two Thai businessmen have sued Tether over 42,417,785.62 USDT the stablecoin issuer blacklisted across 10 Ethereum addresses, according to a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York on Aug. 31 and re-filed the following day. Onchain records show the addresses were frozen on Oct. 30, 2025. The seizure warrant the complaint cites is dated Feb. 19, 2026.

Tether’s terms of service describe the right to buy and redeem tokens as “a contractual right personal to you,” and reserve the right to freeze tokens “as required by applicable Law or where Tether, in its sole discretion, determines it is prudent to do so.” Plaintiffs Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas say they bought their USDT on the secondary market and have no contract with Tether at all.

Ten Addresses, Two And A Half Minutes

Queries against the USDT contract return true for all 10 addresses named in the complaint. Historical state puts the flip for every one of them on Oct. 30, 2025, between 23:00:35 and 23:03:11 UTC — a single batch inside two and a half minutes. Their combined balance at that block was 42,417,785.617689 USDT, which matches the figure in the complaint to the cent. The largest single address, attributed to Kasamvilas, holds 26.1 million USDT.

The two functions the complaint describes are in the verified contract source. The first, addBlackList, blocks outbound transfers while leaving the address able to receive; the 10 addresses have taken in about 101 USDT since the freeze. The second, destroyBlackFunds, zeroes a blacklisted balance and decrements total supply.

The complaint pleads five counts: declaratory judgment on the scope of federal seizure process, conversion, trespass to chattels, unjust enrichment in the alternative, and further declaratory and injunctive relief. It names four defendants — Tether Holdings, Tether International, Tether Operations and Tether Investments, all S.A. de C.V. entities following the group’s 2025 move to El Salvador. Judge Lewis J. Liman has the case. Summonses issued to all four on Sept. 1. Tether has not yet appeared.

What The Warrant Does Not Cover

The complaint alleges, on information and belief, that Tether acted on an “informal request by the U.S. government, acting through the HSI Agent” before any warrant existed, and that a warrant followed on Feb. 19, 2026 — more than three months later. It also alleges Tether emailed Kasamvilas on Nov. 2, 2025, pointing him to a Homeland Security Investigations agent and saying “We do not have further information at this time,” without disclosing that Tether had frozen the funds itself.

Plaintiffs filed a Rule 41(g) motion for return of property in the Eastern District of North Carolina on July 31, case 5:26-mc-00026, before Chief Judge Richard E. Myers II. The government was granted an extension to respond on Aug. 21 and the motion is undecided. The complaint states that no civil forfeiture complaint has been filed against these addresses.

Four Billion Frozen So Far

Tether said in April that its cooperation with law enforcement has frozen more than $4.4 billion in assets, including over $2.1 billion tied to U.S. authorities, across 2,300 cases and 340 agencies in 65 countries. The Defiant covered that disclosure when it was published. In a 2022 post on Tornado Cash, Tether described its trigger as a request rather than a court order: “When Tether receives an applicable/legitimate request from a verified law enforcement agent to freeze a privately held wallet, the Company complies.”

Tether called the suit “a baseless attempt to interfere with Tether’s important work with global law enforcement, including the Department of Justice, to prevent the unlawful use of USDT” in a statement given to reporters on Sept. 2. The company has published nothing about the case on its own newsroom.

USDT traded at $0.9996 with a market capitalization of $183.3 billion at 7:32 a.m. ET Thursday, the third-largest crypto asset, according to CoinGecko. The 42.4 million USDT at issue is roughly 0.02% of that supply.